Uniform
The other day I was riding to work when I happened to notice the other people riding bicycles around me.
This was more of a coincidence than typical of what I see everyday. But I wondered- does not wearing a fluorescent uniform make a person stand out more?
Sigh, do you always have to make fun of us MAMILs? I can’t stop laughing at the caricatures you have drawn of us – serious, overwrought, worried grey beards!
I think the depiction of bikeyface herself may be somewhat caricatured as well… and certainly biased.
I think one should wear whatever they want to wear. The attention a rider pays to their surroundings is the biggest safety feature. I ride everyday and have found that I could be wrapped in Christmas tinsel, with disco lights, and a velvet Elvis in blacklight reflective material and some drivers will look right at me and not see me. I wear reflective yellow because I have read too many news articles that say the bicycle rider that was killed did not have a reflector on the back of their bike. In bicycle crashes the tendancy is to victimize the victim. If I should happen to get run over I want the news to say, “Man that guy was lit up like a freaken rave party perhaps the driver was not paying attention.”
I have a red woollen scarf and red leather gloves (cool when signalling). Other than that mostly black. But if the weather is gloomy I keep my front and rear lights on even in daytime. At night I also pin a bright small light on the back of my hat as I think it is more visible than just on the back of the bicycle, since I’m short.
Most Montréal cyclists don’t wear dayglo clothing. What made me laugh was the guy in shorts. I’ve seen those too, as soon as the temp was slightly over the freezing point i.e. 0°c.
Poignant post with Oregon’s proposed “mandatory hi-vis clothing after dark” law.
As they say in industry, the person getting a b#llocking for not wearing hi viz is the most visible person in the yard.